


Burned

by Frangipanidownunder



Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-28
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-20 22:32:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,379
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11930664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Frangipanidownunder/pseuds/Frangipanidownunder
Summary: For the prompt: 'I hope you have a cold shower.'Post IWTB, pre-season 10. A little bit angsty. But only a little bit.





	Burned

He hadn’t left the house in weeks. She checked up on him often, called, brought him food, cooked and left meals in the freezer. She never complained. He suspected that her conscience was tuned to the point of grazing guilt and that tending to him was a salve.  
“You don’t have to do this, Scully.”  
“I know. But I want to, Mulder.” He saw the dark smudges under her eyes as she stood by the kitchen window.  
“I’m a big boy.”  
She chuffed out a small laugh. “I know that. But even big boys get sick, Mulder.”  
“I’m not sick.”  
“You have depression. It’s an illness. There’s no shame in it. But you do need to look after yourself. I’m here to help you do that.”  
“And make yourself feel better, too, doc?” It came out sharper than he intended and she turned to the window, flicking on the kettle and pulling out the herbal tea bags from the overhead cupboard. The door shut with a bang loud enough to let him know how she felt. He rubbed the heels of his hands over his eyes. “I’m sorry, Scully. That was out of line.”  
It took a moment for her to turn back towards him. She was backlit by a brighter shaft of sunlight and her hair, lighter now, was like a golden aura around her face. God, he loved her. Hadn’t ever stopped. But it wasn’t enough. Not even for them, and all they’d been through. It just wasn’t enough to bind them anymore. They weren’t running, they weren’t fighting for the truth, they weren’t in grave danger. They were just two broken people who’d given up everything, and for him, he hadn’t been able to drag himself along anymore.  
The more she got on with life, the less he found he could.  
“I’ll come around on the weekend. I have a few days off.”  
“You don’t have to spend your leave with me, Scully. Go visit your mother.”  
She sipped tea. “My mother will ask about you and remind me about my responsibilities as a wife. You’re usually all we talk about.”  
“Is that why you don’t go anymore? The conversation is a little on the boring side.”  
Her fingers twined the necklace around so the cross fell between her forefinger and thumb. “You’ve never been boring, Mulder. If you’d have been boring, I wouldn’t have made it past the Budahas case. I would have left you at Ellens Airbase and had something resembling a life.”  
He patted the seat next to him. “Sit with me, Scully. Talk to me about something. Something that interests you. Something that your mother won’t take you to task over.”  
“You want to hear about microtia? Atresia? About the funding of hospitals? About who’s sleeping with who in the zoo?”  
His smile felt unnatural. He tested it out. “Now, that sounds like a story I’d like to hear.”  
Her thigh pressed against his. “There’s a nurse, hard-working, thorough, beautiful,” she smiled. “She could have anyone. But she’s also very devout. And you should hear some of the terrible comments made about her when she’s not around. Honestly, Mulder, in this day and age, you would think that common decency would apply. But some things never change, do they?”  
“The old double standards at play, Scully. If she sleeps with someone, she’s free and easy, a slut. If she doesn’t, she’s frigid.”  
“The Ice Queen,” she said, “I should have patented that moniker.”  
“People can’t deal with a strong woman, Scully. Even now.”  
“By people, you mean men,” she leaned into him and let her hand fall to his knee. “You have always been the exception, Mulder. You are a gentleman and a supporter of equality. I always you knew you had my back. And you always knew I could look after myself.”  
“You are the strongest person I know, Scully. Without you and your persistent courage, I would have given up, run away, died. A dozen or more times. I told you once that you saved me, and you still do. Every day, you save me.” He covered her hand and he remembered how soft and warm she was.  
She leaned her head on his shoulder. “I worry about you, Mulder. Cooped up here. You should get out more.”  
“And where does Spooky Mulder go now that he has no cause? The FBI only wanted me to come back that one time. I’m still an embarrassment. I’m still a no-go zone.”  
“There are careers outside the FBI.”  
He felt her hair on his jaw, his neck and he turned to breathe in. The same fruity scent. He filled his lungs. “You have certainly carved out a niche in your line of work, Scully. But you always were the more practical, the more adaptable partner. I held you back. Even when you thought it was the other way round. You should have been head of the Bureau. But you got stuck in the basement for too long, and now you’re stuck in the backwoods looking after a wash-out partner, a deadbeat husband, an unemployed layabout.” His hand moved up around her shoulder and he began to trace lazy eights on the sleeve of her shirt.  
“Have you ever considered going back to psychology?” There was a note of caution in her voice, like she was treading on dangerous territory. He wondered when she’d started treading on eggshells around him. How often he’d shut her out or shut her down, when he could simply have opted to have a rational and adult conversation. The hazier his mind became, the easier it was to lose her in the mist. “You’d have to do some more study, but I think you’d be an amazing practitioner.”  
“I think I’ve spent too long in the wilderness to be able to help anyone, Scully. What tools or skills do I have to offer anyone?”  
“You mean apart from your resilience, your brilliance, your empathy, your ability to look beyond the mundane, your experiences?”  
He pulled her closer and kissed the top of her head, before he even realised what he was doing. She stiffened. “I’m sorry, Scully. I wasn’t thinking.”  
She relaxed and bit her lip, her cheeks flushing. From deep in the recesses of his memory he recognised this expression and he held his breath against the hope.  
“I quite like it when you don’t think, Mulder.” She turned her face up and captured his lips with her own.  
He responded to her now, to the memory, to the hope, kissing deeper like the hardest years were peeling back and revealing only the raw depths of their feelings. God, he loved her. And she tasted the same, and felt the same and when he dared open his eyes, she looked the same.  
“I think you could add passionate to your tool box, Mulder.”  
“And willing?” he said, grazing his thumbs over her breasts.  
She tucked her chin to her chest and a sigh bubbled out. “And brazen.”  
He chuckled and undid her buttons. “Then let me continue.”  
“You were always upfront, Mulder, never afraid.” She shucked off her blouse and he slipped the straps of her bra down her shoulders. She was untucking his tee and unbuckling his belt and he felt his skin tingle beneath her touch. “You are also incredibly adept at adapting to a fast-moving environment,” she said in the breathy voice he loved.  
He scooted back and laid her down, pulling her pants down and then unbuttoning his own fly. As he stood to lose his jeans, she smiled.  
“You are also an expert at change-management and you read moods exceptionally well.” He licked her stomach and she sighed.  
“Shut up, Scully. I’m trying to make love to you.”  
After, she pushed him up and checked her phone when she thought he wasn’t watching.  
“Something more interesting to attend to, Dr Scully?”  
“No, Mulder. It’s still more than eighty degrees outside and I’m hot and sticky. I hope you have a cold shower to share or this former Ice Queen might turn into the Queen of Fire and burn you.”  
He pulled her up and led her naked to the bathroom. “I’ve been burned by you before, Scully, And I quite liked it.”


End file.
